


Touch of the Sun

by dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Only One Bed, Snogging, aloy is injured, fluff and snark, only one horse, that he's a gentleman and gives up for her, tropes tropes tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 17:17:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14501784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd/pseuds/dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd
Summary: Set after the Sun-Ring quest but with one important difference: Sylens only has one Strider. It’s way more romantic if he only has one Strider.





	Touch of the Sun

Aloy cracked her eyes open and saw fireflies in the dark. Spinning lights, whirling faster than she’d ever seen them fly before. There was a lurch in her belly and she rolled over, dry heaving. It wasn’t the fireflies that were whirling but her head.

What was the last thing she remembered?

Too hard. What could she see? Smell? Breathing deeply she found she was surrounded by the scent of cold stones. The sound of dripping water. And something else. She could smell…polished metal and fresh sweat. Mountain rock overlaid with the scent of a stranger who was somehow familiar to her. She blinked and smoothed her hands over the blankets cocooning her. They had the same scent. This was his bed. Sylens’. How did she know that?

Then the memory rushed back. The Sun-Ring. Helis ordering the two Corruptors to kill her. An explosion, and then Sylens racing into the arena atop a Strider. He’d reached down an arm and she’d vaulted up behind him onto the Strider, and they’d galloped to safety.

He’d made a campfire and then—and then—

Anger raced through her and she flung the blankets back. _The bastard._

As she got out of bed pained stabbed through her middle. She put a hand to her midriff and felt bandages.

Where was he?

The flickering lights around her weren’t fireflies, but lights blinking on panels, like the ones she’d seen in ruins. She seemed to be in some ruins now, but they were clean and lived in. There was a door to the right and she headed through it and found Sylens standing over more of the glowing panels.

He looked up, his eyes running over her. “You’re awake.”

“That tea. You drugged me,” she accused. They’d ridden for some time across the plains, Aloy slumped against Sylens’ back as she’d bled from a bad graze. He’d held one arm over hers that were tight about his waist to keep her from falling off. Finally they stopped to make camp and he’d brewed her some sort of medicinal tea which she’d drank without question.

And then she’d woken up here. Wherever here was.

He straightened, his Focus switching off. “I did. The Carja were after us and I needed to get you somewhere safe. If we’d stayed in the desert you would have been captured.”

“You didn’t need to drug me. I would have just come with you.”

He gave her an arch look. “And have you discovering all my secrets?”

So that was it. This was his special secret bunker. He could know where she was for all the live-long day but she couldn’t possibly know where he hid himself away. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Two days. You can leave tomorrow. I’ll take you to a settlement where you can finish healing in peace.”

“You mean drug me and take me there.” She had a vague memory of seeing stars overhead. Of feeling him against her. Seeing the wires glowing on his chin in the dark as the Strider walked beneath them. After he’d drugged her he’d held her in front of him on the machine. That’s how she’d learned his scent.

“Of course.” He turned and gestured toward another table. “Meanwhile, I have an armour set for you. Something that will also disguise you if you need to head back into Shadow Carja territory.”

Aloy walked over to the table and examined the armour. She picked up the mask and fitted it over her face. “This is a bit over the top, isn’t it?” she said, turning to him.

His eyes flickered over her, and there was something bright in their depths. “Not at all. It’s entirely practical.”

She trailed her hand over the set. It was beautifully made. He’d taken care over this, or had taken care to see that it was well made. She supposed he’d stolen her measurements from one of the craftspeople who’d made her last set of armour. Or had he just listened in as the order was being placed? He could hear everything through that Focus of his. Like her angry rebuff of Nil when he’d kissed her amid the blood and wreckage of the bandit camp they’d just liberated. Her face burned. He probably listened in on her all the time through her—

Her hand flew to the side of her head. Her Focus was gone, destroyed by Helis. 

Sylens noticed her look of horror. “I've got one for you. You can have it when you’re in the settlement. I’ll leave it somewhere you can find it as soon as you wake up.”

"Let me have it now," she said, but he shook his head. “You just don't want me to be able to find my way out of this place without you,” she accused.

He watched her, lips thinned with exasperation. “Are you going to throw another tantrum, Aloy? I’ve got work to do.” And with that he turned his back to her and went to his desk.

* * *

Aloy slept some more and woke up with a clearer head. Sylens’ bed was comfortable. So the man wasn’t above comfort, then, despite his lofty intellect.

He’d left some dried fruit and jerky and a cup of water beside the bed, and she demolished them, suddenly famished. Then she went in search of him. He was in the next room, using his Focus to examine projections in the air that only he could see. She watched him for a moment as he was absorbed in his work, leaning against the desk.

Where would he keep spare Focuses? How many spare ones would he even have? He was probably being careful, knowing how she liked to snoop into everything.

“Do you spend all the time down here in the dark?” she asked.

“Not all my time.”

“It’s not good for a person. You should be out there in the fresh air.”

His Focus switched off and rolled his shoulders and flexed his neck from side to side, working out the stiffness. There was a cord around his neck beneath his tunic. Had they always been something around his neck? She’d only seen him through a hologram so she wasn’t sure.

Sylens turned to her, a sardonic look in his eyes. “I go out to hunt for food. To save Nora Huntresses from certain death.”

“I was fine. I’ve faced worse. Heard of Redmaw?”

His expression was scathing. “Of course I’ve heard of Redmaw. I hear everything you hear. And the next set of machines Helis would have sent in to kill you, would you have survived those? And the next?”

So he wanted her gratitude. She folded her arms and gazed up at him. “I’ll say thank you when you tell me that you would have saved me even if I wasn’t useful to you. So, never.”

Sylens turned away, his Focus glowing again. “Go away. I’m busy.”

* * *

He had to sleep eventually. Until then she poked about in his room and found that all her weapons were there. He trusted her, then. Or rather he trusted his importance in her life. Without him she wouldn’t find the answers she was looking for.

A few hours later she peeked back into the room and saw that he’d fallen asleep on a low seat on the other side of the room, his fist pressed against his temple and his mouth soft.

Aloy walked silently over to him and knelt down before him. Her fingers traced the wires criss-crossed along his arms, feeling their ribbed texture. They effervesced ever so slightly in the dark, making beautiful patterns across his dark skin. The rhythm of his breathing changed and when she looked up she saw that he was watching her.

“You’re wearing the mask,” he murmured.

She was wearing the whole armour set, in fact. It fit her perfectly. “Yes,” she said softly. “I thought you liked it.”

He stared at her, wary and curious at the same time. Her fingers trailed up to his shoulders. He didn’t move, but his breathing deepened.

She looked down at herself, and then back up at him. “It fits well, doesn’t it?”

“It’s practical. You’re well armoured. No more stomach wounds.” He swallowed, his serious expression slipping for a moment. “The colouring goes with your hair.”

The image came to her, unbidden, of her wearing nothing but the mask, and Sylens being there. “It’s nicer in the sunshine, Sylens. You should come up out of your cave more often.” She leaned forward and pressed her mouth against his.

He made a noise in the back of his throat as his arm went around her, pulling her up against him. She felt his hard body through her flexible armour and arched into him as she kissed him back, instinct taking over where her knowledge of these things ended. All she knew was that he felt good against her. Tasted good in her mouth. His lips were full and warm and he knew just how to coax her mouth open to deepen the kiss, his hands splayed against her lower back.

She explored him with her fingers, feeling the network of wires across his broad back. _What were they for?_ she wondered, tracing their patterns. How would he look in the dark, naked, those luminous wires across his skin?

One of his hands slid up into her hair, his strong fingers caressing the nape of her neck. She cupped his face in her hands, and then trailed them down over his throat.

She found the cord around his neck, and pulled. The leather broke with a snap and she held a Focus aloft, victorious. They both stared at it for a second, and then she darted up off his lap and was away.

He reached for her, trying to pull her back. “Aloy—”

Her pack was hidden just a few feet away and she reached in and hurled a low-damage shock bomb at him, paralysing him within a pool of lightning. He cried out and fell back against the chair.

Aloy fitted the Focus against her ear. “I’ll be going, then. Sorry that it had to be this way but I don’t like being drugged and carted about while I’m unconscious.”

Even as he lay there, limbs twitching slightly, his eyes were baleful as they glared up into hers.

Aloy grinned at him. “Don’t get up.”

* * *

 Ten minutes later she was out into the fresh air and had overridden a Strider. As she cantered down to the plains she wondered if Sylens was the type to shout when he was angry or descend into icy silence.

She got her answer a moment later when her Focus crackled. Sylens’ voice was crisp with fury. _[Very clever, Aloy. Don’t bother trying to find me there again. I’ve already abandoned that workshop.]_

Not a shouter, then. Too proud to lose his temper, Aloy supposed. She laughed. “Find you again? Why would I want to find you again?”

She thought he was gone but she caught the sound of heavy, angry footsteps and his hard breathing, as if he was walking quickly uphill.

Her smile widened, and she couldn’t resist goading him a little more. “I’m still wearing the mask. Suits me, doesn’t it?”

He cleared his throat, a frustrated, angry sound, full of his irritation that she’d got the better of him, and then he severed the connection.

She pressed three fingers thoughtfully to her lips as she rode on, remembering the ghost of his kiss.


End file.
